Final: LA Galaxy 5, Revs 1

CARSON, Calif. – The New England Revolution suffered a 5-1 loss on the road to the LA Galaxy Wednesday night at StubHub Center behind a two-goal, two-assist performance from LA’s Robbie Keane and a two-goal performance from Gyasi Zardes.

LA got on the board in the 10th minute and pushed the lead to 2-0 in the 18th minute, before the Revs pulled within one goal with a Lee Nguyen penalty kick in the 38th minute. But the Galaxy re-claimed the two-goal lead three minutes after the half, and added a pair of unassisted goals in the 75th and 78th minutes to round out the scoring.

New England (7-9-2, 23 pts.) went down to 10 men in the 29th minute when A.J. Soares was shown a straight red card for a midfield tackle on LA’s Juninho. Soares will now miss Saturday’s game at Dallas while serving a one-game suspension.

The LA (7-3-6, 27 pts.) advantage lasted only eight minutes however, as defender Dan Gargan was shown a straight red for denial of a goal-scoring opportunity in the 36th minute when he took down Teal Bunbury in the box as the forward broke in for a one-on-one with the keeper.

The loss pushed the Revs’ winless run to six games. The team’s last win came on May 24.

Key Plays

· 8’ – Off a quick restart following a foul, Lee Nguyen plays Teal Bunbury in behind the Galaxy defense. Bunbury gets the shot off and past LA keeper Jaime Penedo, but A.J. DeLaGarza clears the attempt off the line | WATCH THE PLAY
· 10’ – LA GOAL: Robbie Keane finds the upper right corner of the goal after launching from 20 yards. He and Baggio Husidic played a one-two on the left wing before Keane worked inside to create space and get his shot off | WATCH THE GOAL
· 11’ – YELLOW CARD: LA’s A.J. DeLaGarza shown yellow for taking down Kelyn Rowe along the right side | WATCH THE PLAY
· 15’ – LA’s Gyasi Zardes picks up a pass over the midfield line and makes the run in on goal, creates space from his defender and tries to shoot on the near post, but NE’s Bobby Shuttleworth makes the save | WATCH THE PLAY
· 18’ – LA GOAL: Gyasi Zardes finds space inside the near post from 8 yards after Robbie Keane lays off a pass for him after Stefan Ishizaki gets around his defender on the end line and plays the ball back in toward the penalty area | WATCH THE GOAL
· 28’ – RED CARD: NE’s A.J. Soares shown a straight red card for a tackle on Juninho near midfield |WATCH THE PLAY
· 36’ – RED CARD & PENALTY KICK AWARDED: LA’s Dan Gargen shown a straight red card denying a goal-scoring opportunity as Teal Bunbury had a one-on-one with the LA keeper and he tackled Bunbury from behind |WATCH THE PLAY
· 38’ – NE PENALTY KICK GOAL: Lee Nguyen converts the penalty kick attempt to cut the deficit to 2-1 | WATCH THE GOAL

HALFTIME SCORE: LA Galaxy 2, New England Revolution 1

· 48’ – LA GOAL: Gyasi Zardes re-directs Robbie Keane’s cross on the doorstep to give LA a 3-1 lead | WATCH THE GOAL
· 51’ – YELLOW CARD: LA’s Leonardo shown a yellow card for tackling Patrick Mullins as he tried to latch on to a through ball | WATCH THE PLAY
· 56’ – NE’s Bobby Shuttleworth saves Robbie Keane’s tight-angle chip shot from 10 yards | WATCH THE PLAY
· 60’ – NE’s Kelyn Rowe works his way to the endline and gets off a cross that finds Jerry Bengtson three yards from goal, but LA’s Jaime Penedo makes the save
· 65’ – NE’s Lee Nguyen gets off a rising shot from outside the area after the Revs worked a prolonged possession sequence around the box | WATCH THE PLAY
· 70’ – NE’s Steve Neumann gets on the end of Lee Nguyen’s 50-yard pass over the defense but his turning volley was wide of goal
· 74’ – YELLOW CARD: NE’s Jerry Bengtson shown yellow for his trip of Juninho near the top of the box | WATCH THE PLAY
· 75’ – LA GOAL: Stefan Ishizaki’s free kick is deflected by the last man in the wall and finds space over Bobby Shuttleworth | WATCH THE GOAL
· 78’ – LA GOAL: Robbie Keane breaks in and gets on the end of a Revs backpass and converts the one-on-one with Bobby Shuttleworth | WATCH THE GOAL
· 82’ – YELLOW CARD: LA’s Chandler Hoffman shown a yellow card
· 89’ – NE’s Chris Tierney clears Chandler Hoffman’s shot off the line after Bobby Shuttleworth made a save on the initial effort

FINAL SCORE: LA Galaxy 5, New England Revolution 1

Santander Man of the Match
· M Lee Nguyen – Scored the team’s only goal, converting his fourth penalty kick of the season to score his team-high sixth goal

With the loss, the Revolution dropped to 15-17-6 all-time against LA in MLS regular-season action

Tonight’s loss snapped the Revs’ two-game winning streak against the Galaxy (3-1 in LA in 2012, 5-0 in Foxborough in 2013)

Tonight marked the first time the Revolution started a 4-4-2 lineup since April 20, 2013 … the Revs have used a 4-1-4-1/4-3-3 formation for the last 45 regular-season games since that time

A.J. Soares started his second career game at defensive central midfield … he also started as the deep-lying midfielder on July 4 on the road at Real Salt Lake

Andrew Farrell made his eighth start of the season at center back … he has made 17 starts, nine at right back and eight in the middle

Darrius Barnes made his eighth start of the season – and his 11th appearance of the season – tonight when he lined up at right back … all of his starts have been on the right side of the back line

Teal Bunbury made his 17th start of the season and his eighth as a forward … his last nine starts all came as a right winger

Lee Nguyen made his first start of the season at an outside midfield position … his previous 15 starts all came in the middle of the field … this was his first start on the outside since April 20, 2013

Tonight was the third time this season the Revs allowed two first-half goals … all three matches were on the road … in the previous two occasions, New England lost the match (at Houston on March 8, three first-half goals, 4-0 loss; at Montreal on May 31, two first-half goals, 2-0 loss)

A.J. Soares’ red card was the team’s second on the season and the first since April 19 when Kevin Alston got one late in the game at Chicago

With his sending off in the 28th minute, A.J. Soares saw his minutes played streak snapped at 1,558 minutes this season … entering the game, Soares was the only Revs player who had played every minute of every game this season

Lee Nguyen’s penalty kick goal was his team-leading sixth goal of the season, a new single-season career high for the midfielder

Lee Nguyen’s goal was his fourth penalty-kick goal this season … he is now 4-for-4 on the season from the spot … three of his four PKs have come on the road (at Chicago on April 19, at Toronto on May 3)

Lee Nguyen now has seven career penalty kick goals and now sits in sole possession of third place on the club’s career penalty kick record, behind Shalrie Joseph (12) and Steve Ralston (9).

Steve Neumann made his team-best 12th substitute appearance tonight … he has come on as a substitute in each of the last 11 matches

Steve Neumann’s entry into the game in the 57th minute marked his longest appearance of his rookie career … previously, his longest appearance was 19 minutes (June 8 vs. New York, 71st minute substitution)

With LA scoring the game’s first goal, it marked the sixth-straight game in which the opponent scored the game’s first goal and the 11th time this season

The Revolution’s record now stands at 1-9-1 this season when allowing the game’s first goal

When trailing at the half, the Revolution are now 0-8-0

Tonight’s match marked the first time the Revolution suffered a loss by four or more goals since the season opener on March 8 when the team lost at Houston, 4-0

The last time the Revolution allowed five or more goals was a 5-0 loss at Real Salt Lake on July 2, 2010